Ralph A. Alvarado (born April 30, 1970) is an American physician and politician and is currently serving as the 15th Commissioner of the

Tennessee Department of Health The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) is the primary agency of state government in Tennessee responsible for public health. Its workforce provides a variety of direct and indirect services to residents and visitors in all 95 counties of the ...

. He served as a member of the

Kentucky Senate The Kentucky Senate is the upper house of the Kentucky General Assembly. The Kentucky Senate is composed of 38 members elected from single-member districts throughout Kentucky, the Commonwealth. There are no term limits for Kentucky Senators. ...

representing the 28th District from 2015 to 2023. Upon taking office, he became the first Hispanic person elected to the

Kentucky General Assembly The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It comprises the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives. The Gene ...

. His father is from Costa Rica and his mother is from

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

. He assumed office on January 1, 2015, serving until January 6, 2023, when he would resign to accept the role of commissioner. Alvarado was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for "Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and raised in Pacifica and

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. He graduated from

Bellarmine College Preparatory Bellarmine College Preparatory is an all-male, Jesuit, private secondary school located in San Jose, California. Founded in 1851, it is the oldest secondary school in California and the second-oldest west of the Mississippi River. In 2020, Nic ...

in San Jose in 1988. He graduated from

Loma Linda University Loma Linda University (LLU) is a private Seventh-day Adventist health sciences university in Loma Linda, California. , the university comprises eight schools and a Faculty of Graduate Studies. It is a part of the Seventh-day Adventist educat ...

in California in 1990 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in biology and completed an MD from the same university in 1994. He completed his

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgrad ...

at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center. He spoke at the

2016 Republican National Convention The 2016 Republican National Convention, in which delegates of the United States Republican Party chose the party's nominees for president and vice president in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, was held July 18–21, 2016, at Quicken Loa ...

. He sponsored a 2017 medical malpractice bill that was later struck down by the

Kentucky Supreme Court The Kentucky Supreme Court was created by a 1975 constitutional amendment and is the state supreme court of the U.S. state of Kentucky. Prior to that the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in Kentucky. The Kentucky Court o ...

for obstructing access to the courts. Alvarado was chosen by Governor Matt Bevin to be his running mate in the

2019 Kentucky gubernatorial election The 2019 Kentucky gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 2019, to elect the Governor of Kentucky, governor and Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky, lieutenant governor of Kentucky. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic nominee, ...

. The Bevin-Alvarado ticket lost the general election on November 5, 2019, to the

Democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

ticket of

Andy Beshear Andrew Graham Beshear (born November 29, 1977) is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 63rd governor of Kentucky since December 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the son of the 61st governor of Kentucky, Steve Be ...

and

Jacqueline Coleman Jacqueline Coleman (born June 9, 1982) is an American educator and politician serving as the 58th lieutenant governor of Kentucky since 2019. She has worked as an administrator, high school teacher, and high school basketball coach. Coleman is a ...

. On November 22, 2022, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced that he had appointed Alvarado commissioner of the

. Alvarado would resign from the

on January 6, 2023, and become the 15th Commissioner of the

on January 16, 2023. A special election was held on May 16, 2023, to fill the 28th Senate District vacancy created by Alvarado's resignation.

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or again ...

candidate

Greg Elkins Greg Elkins (born October 10, 1964) is an American politician from Kentucky. He is a Republican who has represented District 28 in the Kentucky Senate The Kentucky Senate is the upper house of the Kentucky General Assembly. The Kentucky S ...

defeated Democratic candidate Robert Sainte and

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

candidate Richard Henderson.

References

External links

Profile at the Kentucky Senate website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarado, Ralph 1970 births 21st-century members of the Kentucky General Assembly American people of Argentine descent American people of Costa Rican descent American politicians of Costa Rican descent Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Kentucky Republican Party Kentucky state senators Living people Loma Linda University alumni People from Pacifica, California Politicians from San Francisco People from San Jose, California People from Winchester, Kentucky Physicians from Kentucky Bellarmine College Preparatory alumni